50 Awe-Inspiring Halloween Nail Art Designs

Celebrate autumn with fun and spooky Halloween nails! In this article I have some nail care tips for you, as well as 50 awesome Halloween nail art design ideas.

Are you as excited for Halloween as I am? If I could dress up in a costume every day of October, I would. Unfortunately, once you reach a certain age that’s not exactly appropriate. Instead, I can interject some Halloween spirit with Halloween nail art designs. Sometimes, Halloween nails can also really improve my costume ” bloody nails for a zombie costume, long, pointy nails for a witch costume, or animal-print nails to go with a jungle creature costume.

Salon or DIY for your Halloween Nails?

Are you unsure whether you should do your nails at home, or get them done by a professional? First decide what kind of nails you want, and how steady your hand is. For some Halloween nail designs, doing it yourself at home is totally doable. All you need is a few Halloween-themed nail stickers, and some orange and black nail polish. You’ll also see some simple bloody Halloween nail design ideas, which would be pretty easy to achieve.

On the other hand, if the design you want is very complicated, or requires a nail printer, going to a salon might be for the best. In every city there are at least a few nail artists that are pros at creating really unique designs. Additionally, Halloween is a great time to go out of your comfort zone, with gel nails or pointy acrylics ” you can simply use them to accentuate a cat or witch costume.

Great Halloween Nails Are Healthy Halloween Nails!

To make sure your Halloween manicure looks truly fabulous (or that you have enough space to draw all those intricate designs), make sure your nails are strong and healthy. This is doubly important if you’re going to do something more intense, like acrylics.

• Get enough calcium and vitamin B in your diet, or take a supplement.

• File your nails with an emery board, instead of trimming them.

@leximartone

50 Spooky Halloween Nail Art Designs

So your nails look good? I have some cute, some stylish, and some straight up scary Halloween nail design ideas coming your way!

1. Ghouls and Pumpkins Halloween Nails

You don’t have to have long nails for cute Halloween nail art ideas! You can give each finger a cute Halloween character or motif, like the ghouls, pumpkins, mummies, and spider webs in this design.

@topknotnails

2. This is Halloween Nails

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a quirky Halloween classic, so pay homage to it with your nails! Jack Skellington’s face is undeniably Halloween even for the uninitiate, while Sally’s tattered ragdoll dress design is chic and abstract.

3. Creepy Crawly Nails

4. Cutie Crawly Nails

So spiders are not technically insects, but they also don’t smile this wide normally! There are plenty of cute Halloween nail art ideas, like these purple nails with spider and spider webs on the accent nails, and large chunks of glitter on the rest of the nails.

@hannah_nails_it

5. Classy Witch Nails

You don’t dig the obvious Halloween nail designs? Try something more abstract, with these sharp witchy nails. Dark colors, lots of creepy jewels, and pentagrams on the pinkies are high fashion creepy.

6. Skeletons and Roses Nails

Who said skeletons can’t be pretty? Add a touch of femininity to your badass skeleton Halloween nails, with 3D roses, some jewels, and a glittery skeleton sticker.

@nails2inspire

7. Tarantula Nails

Real spiders can be big, so why contain your spider Halloween nail designs to just one nail? On these nails we have a greyish white base, and black tarantula designs on each finger. Oh, and don’t forget the spider web!

@_lastrega

8. Ghosty Nails

These Halloween nails show a few different ways of playing with ghost designs. We’ve got a creepy, abstract ghost on the ring finger, some cuter ghosts on the thumb, and a smiling ghost face on the middle finger. My favorite design here, though, is the black and white swirly pumpkin.

@meigu_flat_nail

9. Bloody Ouija Nails

What’s a good Halloween party without a séance? Channel some departed spirits, with Ouija Halloween nail art designs. But be careful, because an angry spirit can get vengeful and bloody, as the nails on the right show us. If you’re opting for a gory Halloween costume, you can just borrow that nail stuck in a bloody Halloween nail design.

10. Nanananananananananana Batnail!

Bats are perfect for Halloween nail design ideas! They’re easy to draw, and not too spooky. For a touch of sparkle, draw your bats flying through a shimmery night skin. Add some jewels to represent the glittery stars.

@ohsojeffy

11. Toothy Monster Nails

Real horror connoisseurs would appreciate these horrifying Halloween nail design ideas. Black base, big red mouth, and a lot of sharp white teeth‚Äö√Ñ√∂‚àö√ë¬¨‚àÇ Is it the nails that have teeth? Do they represent the gaping maw of a monster? Either way, it’s an easy nail design that is sure to horrify.

@fingerbangportland

12. Dia de Los Muertos Nails

Inject some color into your Halloween nails with some sugar skulls! These cute skulls made of candy are part of the Mexican Day of the Dead traditions, and they are either given to children or placed on altars as offerings to those who died. They’re cute and lovely, rather than spooky Halloween nail art ideas.

@karma.and.polish

13. Matte Black and White Halloween Nails

Something about the matte finish makes any nail design seem more high fashion and mature, and these Halloween nails are no different. Matte black nails, with white Halloween symbols including the moon, bats, and some spider webs make for an artistic style.

@thestylistssalon1

14. Scary Cinema Nails

Celebrate your favorite creepy film characters, with these Frankenstein and Addam’s Family Halloween Nail Designs. For such a realistic design, you would have to go to a nail salon that has a nail printer, but the effect is totally worth it.

15. Witchy Moon Matte Nails

Channel your inner witch, with some creepy magical symbols. The full and crescent moon designs add a touch of mystery and fantasy to these matte black, white, and grey Halloween nails.

@nailsbybreee

16. Night Sky Eye of Horus Nails

Nail piercings add the perfect bit of flare to acrylic nails. A golden Eye of Horus adds a bit of mysticism to these shimmery night’s sky Halloween nails.

@nailsbybreee

17. Friday the 13th Nails

These creepy Jason Voorhees nails are excellent for your horror movie marathon! Even if you don’t have access to a salon with a nail printer, those blood spatter accent nails could be even done at home!

@nailsbybreee

18. Frida Scaro Nails

The great thing about a lot of Halloween nail design ideas is that they really let you get creative. Channel a Mexican tradition with a Mexican idol, with these quirky Frida Kahlo sugar skull accent nails.

@nailsbybreee

19. Cycle of the Moon Nails

Celebrate October, darkness, and everything mysterious and edgy with some awesome night sky inspired Halloween nail designs. The different stages of the cycle of the moon, represented in a manicure, are artistic and seasonally appropriate.

@nailsbybreee

20. Trick or Treat Nails

These Halloween nail art designs actually give you a few cute options. Moon and star appliques give a touch of glam that is perfect for Halloween. Bright colors like purple and orange, along with silly looking pumpkin and ghost designs make for an adorably spooky manicure.

21. Galaxy Talons

There is no better time for sharp acrylics, than the Halloween season! Just paint your pointed acrylics a dark color, and you’re good to go. For an extra measure, the nail artist here added a gorgeous galaxy design.

@nails2inspire

22. Graveyard Matte Manicure

These graveyard Halloween nails are perfect for a night of telling ghost stories. The accent nails have a gray to black nail gradient, which was then embellished with gravestones. The matte finish makes the design look a little bit more realistic.

23. Ghostie Cutie Nails

The scary Halloween nail design ideas are just not your thing? Conquer your fear of the supernatural with some friendly, adorable ghosts. This is actually a really easy nail design, which you can keep to just the accent nails.

@jamylyn_nails

24. Frankenstein’s French Manicure

This is a great, subtle take on the French manicure, perfect for those looking for easy Halloween nail art ideas. Simply give yourself a shiny French manicure, and add lines of black for the stitches.

@nails2inspire

25. Orange Pumpkin Cat Nails

These Halloween nail designs have all the effect of a Halloween pumpkin, lit from within, but they don’t require a ton of work! Simply paint your nails a pumpkin orange, and add creepy cat figures with swirls of orange and yellow polish, for the fire effect.

@hannah_nails_it

26. Third Eye Nails

Breanna Robak is the queen of abstract yet creepy Halloween nail art designs. Gold, black, and teal polishes are not the traditional Halloween colors, but add a few mysterious eyes and the scary effect is all there.

@nailsbybreee

27. Gore and Glam Nails

The easiest way to get ultra scary but glamorous Halloween nails is with awesome nail appliques, like these skeleton hand and skull pieces. Simply paint your nails a dark color, pop on the nail sticker, and you’re good to go.

@nailsbybreee

28. Cute Bride of Frankenstein Monster Nails

Accent monster nails are probably the funniest of the Halloween nail art designs. Paint most of your nails gray, deep mauve and blue colors, but stick to green on the accent nails, leaving the black for hair, and using black and white for a cute face.

29. Glitter Slime Nails

These Halloween nails are straight out of an R.L. Stine novel. Use a matte black polish all over the nails, and then add a shimmery forest green to the base of the nail, in an oozing design, for a look that is kind of gross but also kind of fashionable.

@cute_n_polished

30. Candy Corn Nails

We can’t have a list of Halloween nail design ideas without some candy corn manicures! The candy corn is emblematic of autumn, even if it’s the one treat no ones wants in their bag. Thankfully, all it requires is a yellow, to orange, to white gradient.

@stephstonenails

31. Halloween Polka Dot Manicure

Sometimes simple is best, and polka dots make for excellent Halloween nail designs. Simply Paint your nails alternating shades of orange, black, and white, and then layer polka dots of the same colors on top.

@nailsbycambria

32 Trick or Treat Nails

Are you too old to go trick or treating? Channel your inner child with cute Halloween costume nail designs. The ghost and witch are classic, but the flower pot costume design breaks the mold and adds extra creativity.

@nailsbycambria

33. Sparkly Spider Nails

These sparkly Halloween nails show how nice a simple top coat can look over negative space nail art. The black spider webs are a fairly easy design, so you can go all out with a spider on the accent nail.

34. Multi Sparkle Pumpkin Manicure

Jazz up your Halloween nail art designs with a lot of shimmer. As long as the main colors are traditional orange and black, no one will misunderstand your intent if you add a bit of colorful sparkle. Draw a pumpkin outline on the accent nail, and you’re good to go.

@sisterlacquer

35. Scary Pumpkin Face Nails

This is another look that carries the design over multiple Halloween nails. While the scary face silhouette is pretty creepy, my favorite thing about this design is the way the glittering purple shines on the ring finger.

@nailsbycambria

36. Graphic Zombie Nails

Zombies are a horror movie classic, and perfect for your Halloween nail art ideas! This is a more of a comic book take, in black and white, with blood spatters and some text.

@nails2inspire

37. Walking Dead Nails

Be on trend and pay homage to the most popular horror TV show, with stylish Halloween nail designs. The white to dark red gradient, with black silhouettes is really striking, and a matte finish keeps it on trend.

@ohnoitsruthio

38. Bloody Nails

Add a touch of gore to your glam with bloody Halloween nail art designs! A pointed acrylic is extra monstrous, and the blood red on white is very striking.

39. Black and Red Moon Nails

These Halloween nails really play with negative space, by alternating black moon touches with red full moons on black background.

@leximartone

40. Suicide Squad Nails

Some Halloween nail design ideas are all about the gore, but this one mixes it up with a bit of sci-fi. Metallic and ombre nails with the famous movie characters dripping from the nail beds look like a body horror science experience gone wrong, but in a glamorous way.

@nailsbyly

41. Infected Nails

If your nails are long and healthy, then even the grossest Halloween nail design ideas will look cool. For the infected nail manicure, speckle red nail polish over a green base.

@lacqueredluxe

42. Burning Witch Nails

This Halloween nail design incorporates dark colors like black and gray with really awe-inspiring burning witch and spider web silhouettes on all the five nails.

@sarana_nails

43. Nightmare before Christmas Nails

Are these Halloween nail art designs just an opportunity to play outside the box? Are you going as a nightmare before Christmas for Halloween? These heavily printed nails are the perfect accent to a costume.

44. Negative Space Halloween Nails

For the base gradient space mani, you can simply draw some geometric figures with a black polish! The cute red rose on black Halloween nail designs, however, require a bit more effort or a nail stamping plate.

@leximartone

45. Midnight on Halloween Nails

This Halloween nail design really paints a picture, of a late night, a spooky graveyard, witches, and trees that seem to have come to life. The black and gray are offset in this look, with a few sparkles that represent the stars.

@sarana_nails

46. Scary Cute Halloween Faces

The fun thing about Halloween nails is that you can get abstract, like in this manicure. While we have some Jack Skellington-type faces on the accent nail, the pumpkin and ghost French tips on the other nails are mostly just adorable.

@kwak_salon

47. Water Marble Mummies

The water marble effect is really useful in these mummy Halloween nail art designs. Keep your nails naked, painting just one of them in a deep night sky blue, and then add a couple of mummy characters and you have some adorable mummies!

@leximartone

48. Cute Christmas Monster Nails

These adorable nails are super unique! Two lovely monster illustrations are all it takes to make a friendly, adorable Halloween design. You can keep the other nails a solid color, or play with embellishments like the big rhinestones.

49. Le Chat Noir Manicure

50. Harry Potter Halloween Nails

You know that moment in Scooby Doo when the lights are off, and all you can see are the characters’ eyes? Kinda scary, kinda cute, kinda funny ” exactly what these Harry Potter Halloween nails are. It’s easy to design, and perfect for the holiday of the tricksters!

Maya is a makeup artist and skincare expert based in Yerevan, Armenia. She eschews buzz words, in favour of giving accurate and science-based advice. A citizen of the world, she was born in Israel, and has also lived in the US, Canada, and, of course, Armenia. Aside from beauty, she is also passionate about literature, beer, politics, and playing the ukulele.